Several people have either sent email or made a comment on the Atomic Insights Blog about the factors that limit reactor fuel consumption (burnup). Here is one of the questions with my answer. This question came from Iain, who blogs at http://ambivalentengineer.blogspot.com Rod, Could you please explain something to me, or point me at some…
There have been a number of comments on this blog, in other places in the media, and on the web registering concern about the amount of waste that is produced by a pebble bed type reactor. I answered some of those comments in a recent response in a comment thread on this blog, but there…
Bloomberg News has published an article about a recently announced project led by Huaneng Power International to build a 200 MWe pebble bed reactor. The system will be based on technology originally developed almost 50 years ago by Rudolf Schulten in Germany. The Chinese version will use experience gained by building and operating the HTR-10,…
The NEI Nuclear Notes Blog has started publishing links to the weekly NEI Energy Markets report. Here is the description from the end of the report describing the source of the report and the intended audience. Energy Markets Report is produced on a weekly basis for the nuclear industry’s financial community by The Nuclear Energy…
Using words that could almost have been taken from President Eisenhower’s 1953 Atoms for Peace speech, President Bush recently elaborated on his recent State of the Union comment about investing in energy solutions – including “clean, safe nuclear energy”. The full text of his 18 February 2006 radio address is posted on the White House…
Annual Energy Outlook 2006 from the US Energy Information Agency is available at http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/aeo/index.html. I make a lot of use of the annual reports, but I recognize that the future projections are very iffy. The report authors understand their limitations as seers and caution report readers to evaluate the scenarios presented with a good understanding…
The international Financial Express published an article on 18 February 2006 titled Germany, Britain push for EU joint energy policy. The article makes the following statement: Blair — on his first official visit to Germany since the conservative Merkel took office last November — said key energy issues included research and development of renewable sources,…
I wrote a letter to the author of a 16 February 2006 article from the Asbury Park Press titled “Closing Oyster Creek would be anything but simple.” The article told its story mainly from the point of view of people that were fighting the license renewal process and talked about things like stopping the production…
I’ll admit it. I am a wee bit jealous of the attention that Patrick Moore and his Greenspirit Strategies are getting for their pro-nuclear stance. Mr. Moore is definitely on the right track now; he and his organization recognize that abundant, emissions free, nuclear energy is a boon for mankind. They are advocating a reasonable…
The New Jersey Star-Ledger has an interesting article on their NJ.com website titled PSEG, Exelon have a reason to keep nuclear plants: Money. Here is the lead paragraph from the article Owning a nuclear power plant these days is sort of like having your own money tree. The plant pumps out cheap power, runs practically…
On Sunday, 12 February 2006, the San Francisco Chronicle published an article by Stewart M. Powell and Judy Holland titled Nuclear power plans surge ahead: 14 new plants set to go online in 10 states over next 20 years. Though the article discusses topics that really nothing new for readers of Atomic Insights, the article…
There is a February 11, 2006 post on the Energy Blog titled BP Planning Power Plant That Would Sequester Carbon Dioxide. It describes a project that is supposed to provide a potential path to to an energy production system that does not release carbon dioxide to the environment. The author of the post on the…